From Humble Beginnings to Stunt Performer

"Sydney set? And 3....2....1.... Action!" The wire yanks my harness and I'm flying backwards fast. I exhale and tighten my core, preparing for impact. I tap my foot and fall on my back on the grass. Chin is tucked so I don't hit the back of my head. I nailed it. "One and done!"

Stunt work is a massive part of my life. It has equipped me to deal with fear through incredible feats. But the number one question I get when someone finds out what I do is "How did you get started?"

I figured I would finally create a blog post about this so that you could be directed here, to learn about the peaks and valleys of pursuing such a wild career in film.

To take it back, as you may already know, I was a competitive gymnast from ages 7-14. I got to level 9, which is about the time where you're learning things like round-off backhandspring double back flip on floor. It's the time that a lot of girls quit I think, because it gets REALLY serious. I mean, I was training 25-30 hours per week, but it became a bit too much pressure for me. I retired from gymnastics so I could "live a normal life." I wanted freedom to make my own choices and explore the way other kids were able to.

I did snowboarding for awhile and then started coaching gymnastics. While at the gym one night, I saw a few guys trying all sorts of flips I'd never seen before and it turns out they were doing "parkour" and "freerunning." I joined in the fun and then it quickly became a passion. When I was 18, I worked as a certified nursing assistant and would train and workout in my free time.

Then I moved to China for a year, and while I was there, I was reminded of how I really wanted to pursue stunts. This was something I used to talk about as a child, but had no idea I would end up actually going for it. Anyway, I became aware of people like Luci Romberg, a legend in the parkour and the stunt worlds. And I just wanted to be her so badly. I was so lit up by it.

I moved back to the US and was training parkour a lot. I got invited to go compete in Vancouver, Canada. I was living in WA state at the time, so I figured I could muster the four hour drive and go for it. I ended up being the only female to qualify for the main event. Two men were there, who at the time I knew about from youtube, Jesse La Flair and Cory Demeyers. They were from the team Tempest Freerunning and they were also stuntmen. I worked up the courage to go talk to them after the event, to ask them about stunts.

They were so sweet and helpful. They lived in LA, and I knew that I would need to move there too in order to actually go for this dream as zero films were being made in Seattle. But what I thought is that I had slightly more clarity and I could move sometime within the next couple of years when I felt ready. I didn't expect what happened next.

I was at work in my med tech job, getting medicine ready for an elderly patient when I received a text that forever changed my life. It was from Jesse and it said, "Hey, could I fly you to LA next week to do some parkour for a music video? It pays $500 for the day." I immediately responded with a fat yes, because I was making $12 per hour at my normal job that I didn't love. I couldn't even imagine what it was like to earn that kind of money doing what I felt called to do!

I was flown down for a couple days to LA to basically model for Cassey Ho (from Popflex Active) for her first ever clothing line. It was the coolest thing I'd ever experienced up to that point and there was this understanding that this was the new standard. After I went home, I immediately put in a notice to quit my job and plan my move to SoCal.

A month later, I did move to LA, with about $1500 to my name. This is wild to me now, I don't know how I was so ballsy! But I did it. Drove all the way down from Seattle with the boyfriend I had at the time (we broke up a few years later). We stayed in the sketchiest hotel ever in Hawthorne. But it's what I could afford. It was close to Tempest Freerunning, where I had secured a job as a parkour coach. I was making $14 per hour.

When we did finally find a place we could afford, it was a house in Koreatown with nine other roommates, and nobody ever locked the door. It was scary, but somehow I just had so much faith that this was part of the process. I'm really proud of this version of myself, as she really didn't let anything stop or derail her focus.

Then, one night at Tempest, about a month after moving to Los Angeles, I broke my hand. I went for a round off double back on the floor, something I had done quite a few times and I got lost in the air. If you've never experienced losing your air awareness, it's one of the scariest feelings. My reflexes kicked in and I put my hand in the air to protect my head and I landed on it, breaking every single finger, dislocating two of them, and broke my 5th metacarpal into thirds.

I could've used this as a sign that it wasn't meant to be, but I decided not to and I continued on my journey. I got surgery, coached parkour, and trained with one arm for awhile. I went back home to Seattle for the month of December and worked as a med tech again as a temp so that I could replenish my bank account. I was just doing everything I could to make it work.

In January, we went back to LA and had to search for a new place to live once again. I remember being so desperate for cheap rent that I'd bypass any feelings of intuition telling me that it wasn't safe to live in places like Compton or nearby to there. Good thing I ended up in Mar Vista at the time. We became roommates with a couple in their late 30s who had a baby. My boyfriend and I split $1200 per month, and I remember that feeling like such a stretch.

I ended up booking a stunt job that paid $500 for the day once again to do a stairfall for a music video. I arrived on time, put what pads I did have on my elbows and knees, chucked myself down the stairs and was so thrilled when I got to the bottom and realized I survived and it didn't hurt at all. This was adrenaline speaking because they had me do it four times total and I had massive hematomas on my hips and thighs after lol. But I didn't care. I remember feeling like the most wealthy person in the world after that day.

The non-union jobs would come in from time to time, but with parkour coaching and that, it still wasn't enough money to pay the bills, so I picked up working part-time at Starbucks too. My routine started looking something like this: Wake up at 3:45am, be at Starbucks at 4:30 to start work. Get done at 9:30. Go home, shower, take a nap. At 12, go to Tempest, train as much as I can. Start coaching at 3. Get done at 8 or 11 pm, depending on whether or not I was supervising adult open gym. Go to sleep and do it all again. It was hard. But I had every ounce of drive to make it work.

I wasn't very good with money and LA is a place that just invites financial expansion. I'd try to get lucky with lottery tickets, used my credit card for groceries, and just constantly was trying to remain afloat. One day, my rent was due, in fact I was three days late. I knew I really needed to pay it at the time, but I wasn't sure how it was going to happen. I had a negative balance in checking, no money at all in savings, and my credit card was maxed out. I sat at a park in Beverly Hills, looking at all the wealthy people around me and I pulled out a pen and notebook.

I don't know what I'm going to do about rent. I want to ask Dad for money, but I feel so ashamed. I'm 22 for goodness sakes. I'm an adult and I need to learn to figure it out.

I sighed and closed my eyes for a minute. And relief came over me.

10 years from now, this day won't be something I'm thinking about. I'll be one of these people sitting at this park with ease, not having to worry about money all the time. In fact I know that 10 years from now, I'll have everything I'm praying for now. This is just the challenging part of my story.

That perspective shift allowed me to let go. I trusted it would all work out. And that no matter what, I was taken care of. I went home to face my roommates, and a random check was in my mailbox for the exact amount I needed to cover rent. I even went back to that park 10 years later to honor my younger self.

This felt like such a turning point for me. I started bringing in lots more commercial work, I became SAG-AFTRA (union), I moved to another apartment with one roommate and that same boyfriend. I auditioned for a national commercial and I booked it. I went to my boss at Starbucks. "I need Friday off."

"That's not going to happen. And we don't have anyone to cover you," she retorted.

"Well then I quit after today."

That's exactly what I did. And I'd love to say that I was able to make stunts work full time from there, but that wasn't the case. I still experienced a few more years of struggle before I didn't have to rely on other jobs.

In 2017, I got sponsored by Tempest Freerunning, which gave me an extra $500 per month. And a few months later, Yokohama tire became a sponsor as well, paying me $1000 per month. So $1500 per month as an income. I used that to quit working as a coach (except for private lessons), and make it my mission to pull in stunt jobs on top of that. I was able to find ways to live with just enough.

During this time, I was also being flown all over the world for competitions, places like Santorini, China, Sweden, etc. I was living such a lavish lifestyle while only having just enough to get by. It wasn't until 2019 that I started thriving financially. This was a result of bigger jobs coming in with bigger residuals, and I was able to coast off that.

So that's basically the gist of how I got into stunts. There are so many tangents and branches I could add to this story but I figure that I could end it here. It hasn't been an easy journey. It's not a linear one. I still have months that go by without a single phone call for work. And then I have an abundance of it, where it's so much that I'm overwhelmed.

A career in film can often clash with the words "balance" and "security" but I wouldn't have it any other way. I've learned to have the same mindset whether I'm showing up for back to back 14 hour days on set or sitting at home having a slow morning. When I'm working, that's my main focus. When I'm not, I do all the things I'd like such as travel, coffee shops with friends, hiking alone in nature.

It's so easy to make our careers our identity, which is something I've definitely done in the past. "Sydney the stuntwoman" is such a small part of my ego, and I'm so much more than that, as are you with anything you do! This career has given me the opportunity to experience a meaningful life, constantly working through fears, meeting incredible people, and now being able to help others to realize their dreams. Every single day I sit in gratitude for this life I've created. I thank every person, idea, or setback that propelled me to where I am now.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the beginning of my career and how it has shaped me. A client the other day asked me if I ever struggled financially and all I could say is "Girl..... Of course!" I hope everyone reading this gets the opportunity to go through hardships to come out stronger on the other side, as that's truly what life is about.

With love,

Sydney Olson

A still from that first ever job I had as a parkour model.

Shortly after my hand surgery, on a hike

One of my first out of town jobs, working with Luci Romberg in New Orleans

I remember that this exact day, my car got towed and it cost me $900 to get it out, which was all of the money I had at the time.